Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Day 10: #SOL16- Quotes From a Staff Developer


The Slice of Life Challenge is hosted by the inspirational writers of Two Writing Teachers. Each March, they invite people to join them in a commitment to write every day. Here's to another year of daily slicing!



I work in a district where we are so lucky because we get to have Teachers College Staff Developers come several times a year to work with us about best practices around literacy. I have started the practice of keeping a special place in my notes for just lines I love and want to remember. There are always SO many wise statements and quotes to capture. Shana Frazin was with us today, and I kept a list of favorite lines from her that I'm sharing in my slice of the day. 

  • “Narrow the gap between students' understanding and our vision.”
  • "Whenever we put scaffolds in place, we have to have a plan to remove them."
  • “What can I hand off and what can I hand over (to students)?”
  • "Anything we can do to capture the talk that is in the air will help kids."
  • "Study partnerships that we admire and think about how we can admire them."
  • "Help kids figure out being a good partner is like a life thing. It’s bigger than reading workshop or writing workshop!"
  • "Have coaching be lean and supportive. How do those two things coexist?"
  • “Its always worth wondering about what you don’t write about.”
  • “Dreaming is a kind of planning.” (She was quoting Gloria Steinem with this one.)
  • “The tyranny of being right.”

Any one of these lines could blossom into a full-fledged post. Maybe one of the lines will speak to someone and they will write off it with a whole new burst of thinking and reflection.

Happy Slicing,

11 comments:

  1. Powerful words!! What a gift to be able to work with staff developers from TC! I'm jealous!!

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  2. My favorite: “It's always worth wondering about what you don’t write about.” Thank you for sharing.

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  3. Such wisdom. You are fortunate. Please, please, please...think about writing from these quotes.

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  4. Such wise, wise words. Thank you for sharing them with those of us who aren't lucky enough to learn with these literacy experts.

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  5. Number three is/was so important to me, a big part of guiding students toward taking charge of themselves, their work, their life. If teachers don't have to "do" it, it frees time for things they do have to. Thanks Melanie, great list.

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  6. Wise words - thanks for sharing them with us today, Melanie.

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  7. Wise words - thanks for sharing them with us today, Melanie.

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  8. You are so lucky to have them in your school. Thanks for sharing.

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  9. You are so lucky to have them in your school. Thanks for sharing.

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  10. Thanks so much for your post! It inspired me to write this http://sometimesfabuloussometimesfail.blogspot.com/2016/03/gets-me-to-thinkin.html

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